Deep Impact
by snowstargirl
Summary: A horrible twist of fate changes Lilly’s world forever, and Oliver does something irrevocable to try to stop things from getting worse… he marries her. Loliver. On hiatus.
1. The End of the Beginning

**Title: Deep Impact**

_Summary:_ A horrible twist of fate changes Lilly's world forever, and Oliver does something irrevocable to try to stop things from getting worse… he marries her.

_Author's Notes:_ Because a lot of this will be a story about Lilly and Oliver being married, I want to state this from the beginning: once again, there will be no smut. Just so you know. Also, the summary and most of the disclaimers aren't going to make sense until later chapters.

_Rating:_ T

_Pairing:_ Oliver and Lilly

**_Disclaimers:_ **None of the _Hannah Montana_ characters belong to me. I promise. As far as I know, they belong to Disney. No one is giving me any money for writing this.

I did make up several characters; anyone you do not recognize from the series (as of the posting of Chapter Two, anyone who is not Oliver, Miley, Lilly, Mr. Stewart, Jackson, or Jake) is a character I made up. Those mentioned in parentheses belong to Disney et al.

I got the idea for being forced to marry so young (in the USA) during a chaotic event after watching _Deep Impact_ (which is a great movie, by the way). _Deep Impact_ does not belong to me either; I believe that movie and everything associated with it belongs to DreamWorks SKG.

I've seen some stories in other fandoms with this plotline, and I've liked them a lot, but I did my best not to copy any of them.

Before you read this, know that you'll have to suspend disbelief at the very idea of the plot. _I'm not expecting anyone to believe that this could happen_, or that it should (most teenage marriages in the United States should be testament enough to that). This is entirely a work of fantasy and fiction.

I am completely making up the laws in Malibu; I have never been to Malibu, nor do I know anyone who has. I certainly don't know of any laws specific to that city. To my knowledge no such law like the one I created exists anywhere, nor should it. (_Author's Note_: If you want to learn more about "blue laws" (religious or strange laws in certain areas which aren't usually enforced but are actually on the books) visit www dot answers dot com slash topic slash blue-law . For some examples of strange laws, you can go to www dot strangefacts dot com slash laws dot html .)

* * *

**Chapter One: The End of the Beginning **

Lilly Truscott sat on the floor of her best friend Miley's living room, playing Risk. Miley Stewart sat to her left, and their other best friend, Oliver Oken, sat to her right. Miley's boyfriend, the famous Jake Ryan, sat across from Lilly, hogging a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

Lilly was thinking about what she was going to do tomorrow. Summer vacation had begun last week, and it stretched out long and inviting before her.

She was staying with Miley for the weekend as her parents had taken her older brother, Tom, to look at colleges. He was going to be a senior in high school this year, and couldn't wait to "get into the real world." Lilly wondered what world he thought he was living in now.

She'd been invited to go with her family, of course, but school didn't really appeal to her, and she'd just gotten out of it. There was no way she was going to sacrifice time with her friends to go traipsing all over California looking at more schools, not if she had a choice. Which she had. She smiled.

She was going home tomorrow. Tom and her parents would probably be back sometime in the morning, but there was a chance they'd be coming home today, if Tom found someplace he liked right away.

Lilly was looking forward to seeing them. As much of a pain as her brother could be, she had missed him. She couldn't really imagine him going away to college next year. She was secretly hoping that Tom would decide to go to the local community college.

She knew that her parents were going to regale her with tales of the wonders of college life, probably in the vain hope that Lilly would want to come with them next time, but it would be nice to see them, too. She liked staying with Miley, and she liked Miley's family, but there was nothing quite like her own.

She reached absentmindedly across Oliver to take one of the cookies he'd snatched from Jake, wondering if there had been any good skateboarding parks near any of Tom's colleges. She'd have to ask him.

Oliver's voice came to her from far away.

"Hmm?" she mumbled, munching on his cookie.

She wondered if Tom would take her and Oliver to visit one of the parks. If there was a skate park near a college, it was probably a good one.

"Lilly!"

Lilly sighed and returned to the game.

"Yeah?"

Miley tossed a piece at her.

"It's your turn."

"Sorry," said Lilly, and she temporarily forgot Tom and potential skate parks.

She looked at the board and considered her options. It didn't really matter what she did. Miley was still winning by a landslide, and Jake was still losing-badly. She grinned at the look on his face. He was shocked. Jake never failed to be amazed when they didn't let him win.

She looked over at her long-time best friend. Jake wasn't losing as badly as Oliver. Oliver wasn't really trying, though. Lilly knew he could beat all of them hands down if he were. But Oliver hadn't been concentrating today.

This had thrilled Miley, as is left her free to gloat as she trounced the fabulous Zombie Slayer. But Lilly wondered what was on Oliver's mind.

She wondered why Jake and Miley needed Lilly and Oliver to play at all. But she supposed she could sit back and enjoy the soap opera Jake was turning this game into. She took her turn and leaned back against Oliver, smiling.

The game continued. Oliver stopped letting her use him as a pillow after she stole his other cookie, and Lilly sat up again. She tried not to look offended, but a little bit of her that wouldn't have cared two years ago flinched as he shook her off him.

She knew she shouldn't care- after all, she had taken his cookie.

And Oliver did love his cookies.

She stifled a laugh as she watched him sneak another one from Jake, who was trying to decide whether to take it back or make sure that Miley didn't touch his pieces. In the end he chose to watch Miley.

_No surprise there, _thought Lilly. She sighed and glared halfheartedly at Oliver, who gave her a strange look as he shoved the cookie in his mouth. It would be so nice to be chosen over cookies.

"What?" asked Oliver, as Jake and Miley busily plotted the takeovers of Australia and Antarctica, respectively.

"Nothing," said Lilly quickly, and they went back to watching the game.

Oliver and Lilly rolled their eyes at each other every so often when the other two weren't looking. Jake's distress at not being able to conquer the world was comical.

Lilly heard the Stewarts' phone ring as she nudged Oliver, who hadn't taken his turn fast enough for Miley, who was doing her absolute best to trample Jake into the ground. Oliver didn't seem to mind that he was being trampled, too.

Jake took his turn after Oliver, and Miley shrieked.

"I'm going to win!" she cried, jumping up and doing a little dance.

Lilly laughed, but Jake looked truly affronted.

"Well," he said imperiously, "I defeated Oken over here. You've got to give me that."

Miley shrugged and Lilly grinned at Oliver, who wasn't paying attention.

"No kidding, Ollie. He _defeated_ you. Have you ever been _defeated_ at Risk?"

"Huh?" said Oliver, confused. He was still thinking about something.

"Oken, you suck at this game," said Jake, shaking his head.

He was kidding, but Oliver had never lost at Risk before.

"As long as we're all being brutally honest," he grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Oh come on Ollie, you weren't even paying attention. What were you thinking about this whole time, anyway?" Lilly asked him. "You were on another planet."

Oliver's grin was back in place.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Lilly punched him on the arm and laughed.

Oliver gave her a ridiculous grin and punched her lightly on the shoulder.

"You lost!" cried Jake and Miley together, dancing around the room together.

Oliver and Lilly rolled their eyes at each other.

"Okay, okay, I lost," said Oliver, hoping to make Jake shut up.

"He never has before though," said Lilly, feeling the need to stand up for Oliver.

"Seriously dude? You've never lost before?"

Jake had apparently gained new respect for Oliver.

"Well I've never been _defeated _before," laughed Oliver. He grinned again. "I always win, don't I Lil?"

Lilly decided she'd stood up for him enough.

"That's because you always quit when you know you're going to lose!" she laughed.

"Shut up!" yelled Oliver.

_Whoa,_ thought Lilly. _Why's he so defensive all of a sudden?_

She missed the smirks Jake and Miley were giving each other.

Lilly grinned at Oliver.

"Don't be such a donut. You know I love you."

Oliver was still a little annoyed.

"Yeah? Well I love it when you shut up."

Lilly was a little hurt. But then he winked at her and she rolled her eyes.

"Come on," said Miley excitedly," let's finish this."

The rest of them sat down in various degrees of protest, but they didn't really mind.

Ten minutes later, Jake minded. But he never got to voice his opinion, because Mr. Stewart came into the room just then, looking positively nauseous.

"Dad?" asked Miley, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Bud," said Mr. Stewart, but he didn't look fine.

"Hey, kids," he addressed Lilly, Jake, and Oliver.

There was a something strange in his eyes, something almost fearful. They looked back at him, waiting for an explanation.

"Dad?" asked Miley again.

But Mr. Stewart wasn't looking at her.

"Lilly," he said, and everyone else turned to stare at her. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Miley and Oliver.

"Um, yes?"

Miley's father gave her an odd look, as though he were trying to decide whether or not to tell her something. Lilly blinked.

"You… need to go home," he said.

She stared at him.

"Did I do something?" she asked him, confused.

Mr. Stewart was always odd, but he was behaving bizarrely even for him.

"No." He smiled at her. "You didn't do nothin.' That phone call was for you. You just need to go home early, that's all. I'll drive you home."

Lilly relaxed. Her family had come home early after all.

"Okay," she agreed. "Just let me get my stuff."

She looked at her friends.

"I guess Tom found a school he liked."

She wrinkled her nose, trying to imagine actually enjoying going to school. Jake and Oliver laughed.

"Come on guys, school's not that bad," said Miley.

"Yes it is," said Lilly. "Come on, Miley, help me get my stuff?"

Miley sighed.

"Sure," she said, looking wistfully at the game board.

Jake smiled innocently up at her as she headed for the stairs.

"Ten bucks says he switches all my pieces," grumbled Miley to Lilly.

Lilly laughed.

"It's just a game, Miley. Who cares?"

"I guess only the person who's winning," laughed Miley.

They reached her bedroom and began packing Lilly's things. When they got back downstairs, Miley took one look at the game board, turned to Lilly, and held out her hand.

"Ten bucks," she said, glaring at Jake.

Jake handed her a cookie and walked into the kitchen.

"Unh uh, I never agreed to bet," said Lilly, grinning.

"Bye guys," she said, heading toward the front door, where Mr. Stewart was waiting with that same strange look on his face.

Just as she walked up to him, the phone rang again.

"I got it!" called Miley's brother Jackson from somewhere above them, but not ten seconds went by before he yelled down the stairs that the phone was for his father.

Mr. Stewart ran past Lilly and into the kitchen to grab it.

Lilly turned back to her friends and shrugged. Jake came back into the living room, and Miley dropped Lilly's bag and started to argue with him. Oliver watched all of this with amusement.

When Mr. Stewart hung up the phone this time, he shook his head, as though he didn't believe what he'd heard. This time he looked almost sad. But before anyone could ask him about it, he opened his mouth.

"Miley…" he began, but then couldn't seem to finish his sentence.

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Why don't- why don't you come with us?"

Miley glanced at Lilly.

"O-kay."

She walked to the door and picked up one of Lilly's bags, and she and Lilly started out the door. Mr. Stewart turned to the boys.

"Y'all can stay and finish up your game," he mumbled. "Jackson's here," he added, as though that was supposed to make them feel better about it.

"All right!" yelled Oliver to Jake. "I'll show you who rules at this game."

Jake laughed.

"You're on."

Mr. Stewart glanced at Lilly, who had just walked out the front door.

"Hey Oliver," he said.

Oliver threw a game piece at Jake's head.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe- maybe you should come with us, too."

Oliver wasn't looking at him. He shook his head.

"No thanks, Mr. Stewart. I'm gonna _defeat_ the great Jake Ryan!"

Jake scoffed.

Mr. Stewart opened his mouth to try to convince him, but Oliver didn't see. Mr. Stewart looked out at Miley and Lilly and shook his head. Maybe it was better this way, he reasoned. The fewer people involved, the less traumatic this might be.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There were two cars in Lilly's driveway when Mr. Stewart pulled up in front of her house, neither of which she recognized, and she was surprised to see a police car on her front lawn. Her neighbor, Mrs. Lotton, was talking to a uniformed officer on Lilly's doorstep.

Lilly looked from Miley to Mr. Stewart, alarmed. Mr. Stewart hadn't said a word for the entire trip. Only now did Lilly realize how odd that was.

"Um, Mr. Stewart?" she said, her voice rising.

He turned to look at her. He looked a little surprised himself.

"What- what's going on?" she asked him.

He shook his head at her.

"I don't know, Lilly. I don't- I don't know." He shook his head. "I didn't want to tell you before, with everyone in the house. It didn't seem right."

Lilly blinked at him, and she felt a chill going down her spine.

Miley glanced at Lilly from the front seat.

"What didn't seem right, Dad?" she asked, exasperated.

Mr. Stewart looked back at Lilly.

"Those two phone calls I got were from a social worker, a Mrs. Hamilton, asking that you be brought home right away."

Lilly felt as though the world were closing in on her.

"What? Why?"

He shook his head again, looking distrustfully into the yard.

"I don't know, Lilly. I'm sorry. Look, I'm not going to leave you here with these people until we know what's going on, okay? Miley and I will be right here."

He looked back at her. Lilly stared at the offending cars, wishing she had some idea of what was going on. A social worker? Where were her parents? They hadn't done anything.

Frightened, Lilly unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed over all of the stuff piled in the seat beside her.

Miley got out of the car and ran with her to the front door, where Mrs. Lotton was waiting with the policeman.

Lilly stopped in front of him.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "What's going on?"

Lilly wasn't usually rude to adults, but she was willing to make an exception right now.

"Lilly…" said Mrs. Lotton, and she put a hand on Lilly's right shoulder.

Miley put her hand on Lilly's left shoulder. Lilly shrugged them both off. She looked at the policeman.

"Well?"

The officer stepped aside as a petite brown-haired woman, not much taller than Lilly, opened the door.

"I'm Officer Davis," said the policeman, "and this is Mrs. Hamilton. She's a social worker," he explained, gesturing to the woman who had opened Lilly's door.

Miley and Lilly glared suspiciously at both of them. Mr. Stewart came up behind them, lugging one of Lilly's overnight bags. Nobody said anything for a moment.

When it became apparent that no one was going to, Mrs. Hamilton looked from Lilly to Miley and decided that Lilly looked more frightened. She smiled at her. Lilly did not smile back.

"Are you Lilly Truscott?" Mrs. Hamilton asked kindly.

Lilly nodded, confused.

"Uh, yeah. What's going on?"

The lady looked at her with the kind of sadness Lilly had only seen in movies, and ushered them all into the living room.

"Why don't you sit down, sweetheart?"

Lilly looked at her oddly. No one but her mother had called her sweetheart in a long time. She looked to Mr. Stewart for advice.

He nodded slowly, but Lilly could tell that he wasn't sure about this either. Miley sat down on the couch and Lilly sat down beside her. Mr. Stewart came and sat on the other side of Lilly. She was grateful that they seemed to be protecting her.

Lilly noticed three other people in her living room, all wearing name badges like Mrs. Hamilton's. They stood against the wall, apparently trying to blend in with it. The policeman closed her front door, and he and Mrs. Lotton disappeared. Lilly leaned back against the couch and took a deep breath.

"There's no easy way to tell you this," began Mrs. Hamilton, looking at Lilly.

There was so much compassion in her eyes. It made Lilly nervous. What reason did this social worker lady have to have that much compassion on her? Something was very, very wrong.

Miley and Mr. Stewart tried to take her hands, but Lilly wrenched away from them. She leaned deeper into her couch and reminded herself to breathe. She concentrated on pushing down the crushing fear that was building inside of her.

She looked through the living room into the kitchen. Her eyes locked on the far wall. She couldn't see it, but she that knew Oliver's house was on the other side of that wall.

_Oliver,_ she thought. _Why isn't Oliver here?_

"Lilly."

Mrs. Hamilton was saying something to her. Apparently Lilly was expected to listen. She turned back and looked at a spot directly above Mrs. Hamilton's head.

"Yes?" she asked harshly.

She knew that she should have felt bad about being so rude to this woman. Her mother wouldn't have liked it. But what were all of these people doing in her house? What did she need a social worker for?

Mrs. Hamilton's voice floated back to her.

"Lilly… Lilly, I'm so sorry. There's been an accident. Your parents and your brother have died."


	2. The Ultimatum

**Chapter Two: The Ultimatum**

* * *

Everything in Lilly's world went black. 

Everything and everyone around her disappeared, and Lilly wondered for a moment if someone had drugged her. Then she remembered what Mrs.Hamilton had said, and decided that might not be so bad. She fell backward and let the darkness take her.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Lilly opened her eyes, she was lying on her couch, looking up into several concerned and blurry faces. She brought her hands to her temples and held her head in place.

"What happened?" she whispered, her voice cracking on the last word.

For a moment there was silence.

"There was- an accident," said Mr. Stewart quietly, gently.

_Too gently,_ thought Lilly, looking around the room to try to match his voice to his face.

"What do you mean, an accident?" she asked numbly.

But the inky blackness began to leave her, and she realized that she already knew. The weight of that knowledge should have crushed her, but Lilly found that she felt very light.

Still, she shouldn't have asked. Maybe if she hadn't, no one would feel compelled to answer. She blinked up at the people before her, trying to bring them into focus.

_Miley. Mr. Stewart. Mrs. Hamilton… __Other faces… __Where was Oliver?_

Lilly choked. She sat up as they all tried to tell her to lie back down. When the police officer, who had evidently rejoined them when she'd fainted, pressed a hand to her shoulder, she finally complied.

She looked back up. She had never seen so many sad faces. They were all so full of sorrow... and pity. Lilly felt a soft anger begin to boil in her belly. She didn't need their pity. She glared at the policeman and sat back up again.

He gave her a warning look and opened his mouth, but Mrs. Hamilton shook her head at him, and he backed away.

"I'm so sorry, Lilly," began Mrs. Hamilton.

_She's always so sorry, _thought Lilly. _What d__oes__ it help?_

But she didn't say that. Saying it would have taken too much energy, and all of Lilly's energy and anger had left her when she'd sat up.

"You already told me that my brother's dead," said Lilly, in a monotone that struck most of the others and made Mrs. Hamilton look on her with understanding. "You already told me that my parents are dead." She tilted her head. "What else are you going to tell me?"

She seemed so calm and accepting that almost everyone was giving her funny looks.

"She's in shock," whispered a lady behind Mrs. Hamilton, who was still looking at Lilly with her strange mix of sympathy and understanding.

"Nothing for now, Lilly," she said softly, soothingly. "Why don't you lie back down?"

Lilly didn't want to lie back down, but she found herself doing so anyway. A lady in a paramedic's uniform that Lilly hadn't noticed before put something in her hand.

"Do you think you can drink something, Lilly?" she asked.

Lilly thought that was a ridiculous question. Why wouldn't she be able to drink something? She nodded.

The paramedic gave her a glass of water and told her to swallow the pills she had handed her. Lilly did so gratefully, and the room stopped spinning. She hadn't noticed that it had started.

"Why are you giving her those?" she heard Miley ask nervously. "We just spent ten minutes trying to wake her up!"

But Miley's voice was beginning to fade, and Lilly drifted into darkness once again.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Lilly woke up this time, her headache was gone. But she found that she really wished she still had it, because it had been keeping her mind somewhat clouded. She groaned softly as everything came rushing back to her. She looked around, determined not to cry. She wasn't sure why she cared, but somehow it had become very important not to cry; not to think of her family at all.

She tried to shut her brain off, but it didn't work. She closed her eyes and found that she was able to make the images of her family disappear for a moment. Upon opening them, she realized that the lady who had given her the sleeping pills was sitting in the easy chair beside her.

She smiled at Lilly, checked her pulse, and left without a word. Lilly was glad. She didn't want to speak.

To anyone.

Ever again.

But her gratefulness was short-lived.

She tried to push away the thoughts that had begun to torment her again, but found that she couldn't. She began to shake.

_Stop it,_ she commanded herself severely, and she did.

She blinked, and the paramedic was suddenly replaced with the three other people who had been in the room when Lilly had first met the social worker, a woman and two rather official-looking men. And now there was a new, older man behind these people. She looked around wildly, suddenly afraid that Miley and Mr. Stewart had left.

_He said they wouldn't, _her mind screamed at her as the panic began to set in. _He said they wouldn't!_

And then she saw them, standing across the room with the wretched Mrs. Hamilton. They looked as though they'd like to come and stand with Lilly instead, but she saw that something was holding them back. The dread crept over her again, and Lilly wondered what it was.

The older man came toward her, blocking them from view.

"Can you sit up?" he asked her gruffly.

Lilly sat up. Whatever he had to say to her couldn't possibly change her life anymore than it had already been changed. She looked at him, waiting.

"Has anyone explained to you how your family-" he began, but Lilly cut him off.

"It doesn't matter how," she whispered softly.

She didn't want to know how they had died. All that mattered was that they were gone.

The man nodded and began to speak again.

"I wish I didn't have to say this to you now, Miss Truscott," said the man apologetically, but Lilly got the feeling that he didn't really care when he said it, whatever it was, so long as it got said. "You deserve a few more hours to deal with this."

Lilly looked at the clock and realized she'd been asleep for over twelve hours. It was morning.

It didn't matter.

"Tell me what?"

Everyone but Mrs. Hamilton seemed surprised that her voice sounded so clear. Lilly took irrational pride in that as she looked up at the man. She read his nametag and wished she hadn't. The name _Judge __William __Hartley_ stared back at her. First a social worker, and now a judge. Lilly held her breath.

"I am a judge for the department of social services."

Apparently he felt the need to introduce himself.

"As I'm sure a young lady such as yourself is aware, judges do not usually venture out to people's homes while on duty."

Lilly had never considered this, but she kept quiet.

"However, in your particular case, I felt the need to explain something to you myself. I would certainly have preferred for you to come into my office, but it seems that you were sleeping."

Lilly felt that there was an unnecessarily accusatory quality to his voice, and she began to care much less that he was an authority figure. The judge ignored her shift in attitude and continued his speech.

"I need to explain something to you, Miss Truscott, and I have to say that I wish I didn't have to."

He sighed.

"I have to warn you that it's going to come as a bit of a shock."

_In case I haven't already been shocked __enough_ thought Lilly, and she felt the anger boiling again.

"This has never been an issue before. But with you, I'm afraid…"

The judge ran a hand through his graying hair and scowled at one of the younger men, who shrunk back. Then he regarded Lilly oddly for a moment, trying to decide how to say whatever horrible thing he was going to say to her. Lilly stared back at him, daring him to say it.

And then he did. And she knew when he opened his mouth that she was going to wish very badly that he had not.

"Miss Truscott, there are laws in the state of California which I wish did not exist; laws which are very much outdated and which are usually ignored in the name of progress." He sighed again. "But they are still laws. And when one is brought to the attention of the court, it must be looked into. Unfortunately, there is one which applies to your situation."

"My… situation?" she mumbled, confused.

"Your recent losses," amended the judge, and Lilly swallowed.

He continued.

"There is a law in the city of Malibu, Miss Truscott, which states very clearly what must be done with a child who has lost his or her parents; a child who is an orphan."

_What must be done… a__n orphan._ The words echoed spitefully in Lilly's mind, but the judge took no notice.

"That child will go to a family member, if one can be found. I understand that you have an aunt."

Lilly blinked.

"An aunt, Miss Truscott, who feels that you and your brother have been a lot of trouble for her in the past. She has stated that you tell all kinds of lies and act quite, forgive the term, crazy, at times. She stated that if you agree not to cause her any trouble or to act violent or insane, she will consider taking you. But you must agree, Miss Truscott."

Lilly blinked again, and her head began to swim.

"Would you like to stay with your aunt, young lady?"

Memories flew at Lilly faster than she could stand them.

_She saw her cousin, Marie, the one who had drowned… accidentally, of course… but Marie was suddenly standing in front of her, ten years old and covered head-to-toe in bruises, telling __an eight-year-old __Lilly that she'd fallen off her bike. _

_She saw Tom two years later, yelling at her aunt, who was screaming, and at her uncle, who was chasing them all with a baseball bat. _

_She saw Tom pushing her uncle away from Lilly as he came charging up the stairs. She saw herself pushing her uncle away from Marie as he knocked her down in his haste to attack his stepdaughter._

_She saw herself, crying under a bed, next to Marie, who was eerily silent and rocking where she lay. _

_She saw her mother coming to get Tom and Lilly, __crying as Lilly told her about the baseball bat, __swearing that she would call the police. She saw Marie standing beside her at a police station in Dallas, denying everything, laughing __when someone__ pointed at a __bruise h__ealing __on her arm__, because she said she was always so clumsy. _

_She heard Marie's voice on the other end of the telephone the next week, telling Lilly that they were moving to Louisiana. _

_She saw her mother crying when they heard the news the next year; that thirteen-year-old Marie, who Lilly knew to be an excellent swimmer, had drowned in her backyard swimming pool. She heard her aunt crying to the police that Marie was a terrible swimmer. _

_She saw her father shaking his head when the report came out stating that Marie's death had been accidental. __She saw herself showing her mother a newspaper clipping she'd found stating that her uncle had had a son in a previous marriage who had died mysteriously many years before. _

_She saw Tom, hugging her, forbidding her to go anywhere near Louisiana ever again._

_She saw herself crying in Oliver's bedroom the year before they__'d__ met Miley, telling him about Marie._

Lilly felt dazed. She looked back at the judge and blinked. He was trying to get her attention.

"No," she whispered. She did not want to stay with her aunt.

"We have been unable to locate any other living relatives."

Lilly blinked again.

"Are there any?" he asked her.

Lilly found the energy to shake her head. There was no one else. What would that mean?

He sighed.

"Your friend Miley and her father have offered to let you stay with them for the time being."

Lilly looked gratefully over to Miley, but there were tears in Miley's eyes. The judge's voice came back to her, and her minute relief was short-lived.

"However, there is a law in the city of Malibu which states that if a child is of age when he or she is orphaned- of age being fourteen years old, which I am told that you are- than that child is to be married."

Lilly was suddenly wide awake.

"Um, excuse me? Married?"

"Was I unclear, Miss Truscott?" Lilly shrunk back and shook her head.

"Yes, married. It is, shall we say, a blue law."

Lilly was sure she was going to faint again. She wouldn't go to her aunt… so she had to be married?

The judge was still talking.

"Now of course you could go into foster care, and you could stay with the Stewarts; however, their home and family must be looked into before you could do so, and until that time you would need to be in a foster home which had already been approved."

He brushed a piece of lint off of his sweater, and Lilly watched in hazy fascination as he continued to talk.

"However, all of the city's foster homes and group homes appear to be full at the moment, so you would be placed in a juvenile detention center until the Stewarts could be approved."

Lilly stood up in alarm, but sat back down again immediately when she noticed that she couldn't feel her legs.

"However, if you agreed to consider being married, Mrs. Hamilton has agreed to stay here with you in your home for a few days while you consider. She feels that it would be unfair for you to have to stay in such a facility."

For a moment, Lilly's eyes drifted to Mrs. Hamilton of their own accord. Perhaps she had been helpful after all. Someone cleared his throat, and she returned her attention to the loquacious judge.

"Miss Truscott? I'm sorry, Miss Truscott, but you must be looked after _tonight_, and unfortunately, it cannot be by the Stewarts. Not yet."

Lilly only stared at him, her mouth open in a silent O.

He was beginning to look impatient.

"I understand that this is quite a lot to take in. You may have the afternoon to think it over. Remember, you can agree to stop lying and acting silly and stay with your aunt, you can stay in a foster home, in which case you will be in a juvenile detention facility this week… or you can get married."

Lilly was visibly shaking.

The judge's voice came back to her.

"And do remember to thank your aunt if you decide to take the opportunity to get married." He glowered. "The state of California generally frowns upon teenage matrimony, but she called back an hour after Mrs. Hamilton hung up with her, demanding that the state look into the old marriage law. Apparently she doesn't want you living with her, but she doesn't want you in foster care, either. An odd woman, your aunt."

Lilly could imagine. Her aunt had cared about her, once. Her aunt had cared about Marie more than anything in the world. But after she had married Jason, she had cared about no one more than her husband. Or maybe she was just afraid of him, like everyone else.

Her Aunt Margaret wouldn't want Lilly in foster care. But she knew what would happen if Lilly came to live with her, and she knew that she wouldn't have the courage to stop it. She hadn't had as much with her own daughter. But Jason would be waiting for a new target, and if he found out that Lilly could come to stay with him, he would drag her to Louisiana himself. Margaret was trying to give Lilly a way out, the only way she could.

Lilly slowly exhaled, feeling that her brain had turned to mush.

The judge got up.

"I'll send Mr. Tawley here," and he indicated one of the men who stood behind him, "back to receive your answer at four PM sharp. Please do not keep him waiting."

And with that he got up and left, sighing in Lilly's general direction as he went out.


	3. I Won't

**Chapter Three:**** I Won't**

* * *

Lilly sat down, trying to take it all in. Everyone else had left the room. She heard snatches of the conversation Mr. Tawley was having with Mr. Stewart in the hallway. 

"… and if she doesn't want to do either of those things, she'll have to be married… by sundown next Tuesday. Or the state chooses who she lives with."

It was flat-out impossible. Who would she marry? Who would be willing to marry her? Especially by Tuesday. Lilly's head spun.

_There i__s one possibility,_ she thought suddenly; _one boy you really trust…_

_No._

She couldn't ask that of him.

Lilly lay back down on the couch and tried to forget.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I can't do that," said Lilly, amazed that her friend would even think of it. Her cheeks turned pink at the very idea.

Miley had just suggested that she marry Oliver.

Oliver _Oken._

Her very best friend in the entire world.

Miley wanted her to _marry him._

Lilly sat in her bedroom with Miley, feeling like a ghost in her own home. As if in a dream, she watched the clock on her nightstand as the numbers crept closer to twelve.

"Four more hours," she whispered to herself, too softly for Miley to hear.

But it was loud enough to drown out the noise that had been inundating her ears since Miley had brought the subject up. Lilly had told her that she wouldn't do it; four times she had told her.

Lilly never should have told her not to consider the marriage idea, since there was no one for her to marry. Miley had brought up the fact that she could, potentially, marry any one of half the people in their school, since they were boys.

The only requirement the judge had given Lilly (or Miley's father, rather, since Lilly had been too shaken up to listen) was that she had to marry a boy who lived in Malibu who was between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.

Lilly's head spun. It seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

Miley's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Good grief! This is not the time to be bashful, Lilly! You've liked Oliver, what, forever? You know you want to marry him."

Lilly just stared at her, dumbstruck. When had she ever told Miley that she liked Oliver? She didn't like Oliver. Not the way that Miley was implying that she did. Perhaps there were moments when she'd thought… Lilly pushed the thought away. None of that mattered now.

"If you think about it, you'd realize you two were going to end up together. Sure, it's a little sooner than you thought it would be. But now you have the chance to actually do it! And you're just going to throw that away because of your pride?!?"

"My pride isn't the-"

"Yes, it is, and you know it," Miley interrupted. "You don't want to make Oliver save you. You don't want to have to be rescued. You think you can do everything by yourself. Well you _can't_."

She took a breath.

"You know what, Lilly? I think what you really don't want is for Oliver to know you've been crushing on him."

Lilly's eyes flashed.

"My family just _died,_ Miley! Can we please not talk about who I have a crush on? And definitely not about who I'm going to marry!"

Miley sighed, trying to look past that for her friend's sake.

"I wish we didn't have to. But if you don't get this sorted out in the next few hours you don't know what will happen."

Miley looked down.

"They haven't approved my house, Lilly. Or my family. My dad's a single parent and we spend a lot of time away from home. There's no guarantee that they're _going_ to approve us. And I don't know why, but you don't want to go live with your aunt."

Miley was getting a little panicked for Lilly, who didn't seem to care what happened to her.

"You have to decide. You haven't thought about getting married. Okay, fine. You're only fourteen, and it's scary. I'd be scared, too. But Oliver? _Oliver_, Lilly? I don't get why you won't even _think_ about it."

Miley finished her speech and flopped down on the ground.

Lilly glared at her from her spot next to the window. She didn't care what Miley thought about it, so long as she didn't share those thoughts with Oliver. She tried to calm down.

"Well anyway it doesn't matter. Oliver wouldn't want to marry me. He's-"

Miley interrupted again.

"Lilly, he _adores_ you. He feels exactly the same way you feel about him. I hate to break it to you, Lil, but _ev__eryone_ can see that. Everyone but the two of you. How do you know what Oliver would do? I think you know he _would_ do it, and you're just scared. Geez, Lilly! Sure it's a shock, yeah it'll be hard at first, but wouldn't it be easier to be married to Oliver than anyone else? Or to live with someone you obviously hate? Or to be stuck in _jail_? I mean, you guys have been best friends since you were in preschool!"

Lilly just looked at her. Finally she sighed. It was a long, patient sound that frightened Miley more than any of Lilly's previous behavior had. It was the broken, cheerless exhale of someone who had so thoroughly resigned themselves to their fate that they could see no other future. Unconsciously, Miley backed away.

Lilly continued to look at her, but there was something missing in her eyes.

"Swear you won't tell him, Miles," said Lilly. "Swear it."

Miley didn't say anything.

"You have to," said Lilly, and she stood up, her voice suddenly very harsh.

Miley stood up too. She found her own voice, and it was angrier than she'd meant it to be.

"I _don't_ have to."

Something tore at Lilly, and she grabbed Miley by the shoulders and shook her.

"Yes, you _do_. I can't do that to Oliver."

Miley was confused. Lilly sounded like she thought she would be hurting him.

"You can't do what to Oliver?"

Lilly's hands flew to her hair, and she shook her head, her eyes wild.

"What if you're right? What if he would? It could wreck his whole life. I can go live with my aunt, or I can wait it out in Juvie while the half the government of California sticks its nose into your family's business, but I cannot marry Oliver. I will not. I won't."

She paused for a moment, taking in Miley's shocked silence.

"I want to stay with your family, okay? I can do that. I just don't want to be in jail first is all. Just let me _think_."

Miley just stared at Lilly as she paced the room, her eyes growing increasingly unfocused. Miley wondered vaguely if this was the way she had behaved when her own mother had died. She shivered. She continued to stare, wondering what was happening to her best friend; wishing she could stop it. Lilly looked as though she'd gone mad, and she was certainly acting like it.

Lilly suddenly stopped pacing and stepped back; her energy dissolved as quickly as it had come. She tried to concentrate on her friend again. She had to calm down.

If only she could make Miley see… Lilly brought her hands out of her hair and buried her face in them instead.

"Just… promise me you won't tell him, okay?"

Miley opened her mouth to protest, but Lilly looked so pitiful that she couldn't. She sat back down on the floor and waited for Lilly to do the same.

"All right," she sighed. "I promise."

But that was one promise that Miley couldn't keep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilly hugged an old stuffed elephant to her chest and willed time to stop.

Miley had gone back downstairs, and no one had come up to check on Lilly for several minutes. Lilly didn't particularly care where anybody was, so long as they all left her alone. She looked at the clock and closed her eyes. She only had three hours left.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sound of a door opening woke Lilly from a dreamless sleep. She vaguely remembered crawling into her closet and sliding the door closed. She hadn't been able to cry, so she had just lain down, wondering if she would ever feel anything again. She looked up and saw Oliver standing over her, concern marking his features.

She didn't say anything; she simply looked up him.

_Miley better not have…_ she thought, but Oliver interrupted.

"Hey, Lil," he said softly.

She didn't answer, so he sat down in the closet across from her. She didn't say anything, but her eyes told him how much pain she was feeling.

"I- I came as soon as I heard," he whispered. "Miley's dad- he came back and told us-" He couldn't think of what to say next.

But Lilly only gazed at him; she didn't seem to be expecting him to finish his sentence.

Oliver watched her closely. When she didn't so much as blink at him, Oliver tentatively reached his hands out and covered hers. He felt like a fool, but Lilly looked like she needed someone to hold her. Oliver didn't know how to do that, so he settled for twining their fingers.

"Lilly," he murmured, knowing it was a useless thing to say, "are you okay?"

Lilly stared at their hands. She wanted to be angry with Oliver, for not being there with her when a stranger had given her the most devastating news of her life. But she found that she was only glad that he was alive; that he was here with her now. Everything else disappeared.

Lilly let go of his hands and launched herself into his arms, clinging to his back. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe. She could feel herself beginning to shake, but she couldn't seem to stop.

Suddenly all of the emotions she hadn't let herself feel properly were overwhelming her, and all that was stable in the world was Oliver Oken.

Lilly let herself cry.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Lilly had thrown herself at him, Oliver hadn't known what to do. After a moment he pressed his hands against her back in return, and he was surprised to find that she let him hold her. He hadn't thought that she wouldn't, it was just that he hadn't thought about it at all.

Somewhat guiltily, another thought flashed into Oliver's mind. He'd been thinking of doing something with Lilly for months, but he hadn't known how to begin. He hadn't been sure what _to_ do. Holding Lilly brought it back to him.

This, now, was not the scenario he'd imagined. It struck him as strangely, horribly ironic that her family's death would be the thing that led her to lean on him. But he pushed that thought away and simply held her. Being there for Lilly meant so much more than anything else.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thirty minutes later, Oliver half carried, half dragged Lilly to her bed. He lay her down and stood back, watching her.

Oliver had never seen an angel, that he knew of, but he thought Lilly looked a little like one just the same. The drying tears staining her lovely face were all that marred the image of perfection Lilly wrought.

Almost without realizing what he was doing, he ran his fingers through her golden hair and drew closer to her, pressing a light kiss to her forehead.

"Lilly," he whispered, holding onto the image of her there, in front of him, alive. He hated himself for thinking it, but he was glad that if one member of her family got to live, it was her. He thanked God that she had stayed with Miley for the weekend.

He shook his head, wishing there was something, anything, he could do for her. But there wasn't. So he backed toward the door, wiping tears from his own eyes; the ones he hadn't realized he'd been crying until Lilly had touched his face.

Oliver walked out the door, still looking at her, shutting it softly in front of him as her image disappeared from view.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oliver had been thinking about going back to his house, but he didn't want to leave Lilly. He wanted to know, for sure, that she was okay. That he would only have to go upstairs to hear her breathing. He walked into Lilly's kitchen and sat down at the table, across from Miley.

Miley turned her head away from the window and looked at him.

"Hey Oliver," she whispered softly after a minute.

He looked up.

"Hey."

His voice cracked on the word.

Neither of them spoke for a while. After a few minutes, Miley could no longer contain herself. Surely Lilly had broken down and told him after all. But Miley couldn't tell anything from his face. Either Lilly really hadn't told him, or he had an incredible poker face… Miley knew the latter to be untrue, but she thought she'd better ask him, just in case.

"Well?" she said.

Oliver looked up.

"Well, what?"

Miley was affronted.

"You didn't say no, did you?"

Oliver looked confused.

"To what?"

His voice cracked again, and Miley wondered if Lilly was actually being stubborn enough to ruin her own life. She wondered if Lilly really believed that she would be ruining Oliver's by marrying him. She doubted it. Lilly was just scared. Miley had been right, this was a promise she had to break.

_It's for Lilly's own good, _she reminded herself.

But when she opened her mouth, she found that she didn't really know how to break it.

"To what?" asked Oliver again, and Miley realized that Lilly really hadn't told him.

"_Unbelievable,_" she mumbled. "Absolutely unbelievable."

Oliver had apparently given up caring what he hadn't said no to and was looking down at the table again. Miley sighed. Lilly needed to be the one to tell him.

Miley wanted Lilly and Oliver to have this opportunity, but maybe it wouldn't matter. Mrs. Hamilton had offered to stay here with Lilly… maybe she wouldn't have to go to Juvie. Maybe Lilly would wind up being able to live with the Stewarts… or her aunt. Miley frowned.

"Oliver?"

"Huh?" he asked the table.

"There was this… judge, or somebody, who came by to talk to Lilly. And he told her that she might be able to live with my family, or with her aunt. She might not be able to live with me, so she has to think about living with her aunt, but she doesn't want to. Do you know why?"

That made Oliver look up. His eyes turned stony.

"If she'd said she wanted to live with that woman, I'd have locked her in her room for the rest of her life."

Miley was taken aback. Lilly had suddenly been willing to live with someone she didn't like when faced with having to "wreck" Oliver's life, and Miley had thought it was strange. But it was her aunt, so who cared?

But Oliver's reaction made her think that doing so might be dangerous.

"I wouldn't _let_ her live with that woman," Oliver continued, anger evident in his voice.

"Uh, why?"

So he told Miley why.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Oliver had finished, Miley was furious.

"Okay, that's _it_. I told Lilly I wouldn't tell you, but now I have to."

"Tell me what?"

And she explained Lilly's third option to Oliver.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So someone could marry her," said Oliver, amazed. "And then she'd be safe for sure."

"Well that would depend on who she married," said Miley, rather obviously.

Oliver didn't say anything. Miley could tell that he was coming to the same conclusion she had. She put on a very bright smile.

"So she didn't ask you to marry her, huh?"

Oliver stood up, his face white as a sheet.

"What?" he whispered.

Miley suddenly wondered if she'd been wrong after all. What if Oliver didn't really like Lilly? She was beginning to feel slightly guilty. But then Oliver sat back down and looked off into the distance, unfocused.

"No, she didn't…" he murmured. He looked at Miley, his eyes back in focus; the look of confusion back on his face. "Why not?"

If they hadn't been so somber, Miley might have laughed.

"She said that she's afraid she'll ruin your life."

Oliver did laugh.

"What?"

"You know, she thinks she'll be a big burden on you… make you do something you don't want to do because you feel sorry for her."

Oliver shook his head.

"That's stupid." He suddenly looked much more mature than Miley had ever known him to be. "I love her. I think… no, I _know_-" and here he came to a revelation that shocked him so much that Miley realized he'd never even considered the possibility, but that he was completely sure that it would have happened. "I would have married her in ten years anyway," he finished.

Miley smiled, a genuine smile this time, and Oliver stood up.

"I'm going to ask her to marry me then." He took a deep breath. "How much time did you say she has to decide?"

Miley's smile faltered as she looked at the clock."

"About two hours."

Oliver looked sick. Apparently he hadn't meant that he'd ask her so soon. But he set his jaw and nodded.

"I'm going to go up there right now and ask her."

"Great," said Miley. "But maybe… maybe you should be careful how you ask. I mean, she didn't want you to know, you know."

Oliver scoffed.

"Yeah, because she thinks she's going to ruin my life. I told you, that's stupid."

He started for the stairs.

"Oliver, wait."

He turned back around, exasperated.

"What? You said we've only got two hours."

"Um."

She stopped. Saying what she was about to say really would make her feel guilty. But she said it anyway.

"I think maybe Lilly's… afraid of you."

"Afraid of me," repeated Oliver, incredulous, trying to imagine Lilly being afraid of anything.

"Not of you," said Miley quickly, "but of, uh, what she feels… about you. Uh, for you."

Behind their sorrow, Oliver's eyes took on a gleaming sort of quality.

"What do you mean?"

Miley sighed.

"She likes you Oliver… really _likes_ you," she added, in case he didn't get the point.

Oliver smiled.

"Really?" His smile turned into a grin, and he turned a bit red. "I like her, too," he said to his sneakers.

He turned back toward the stairs, and Miley pulled him back.

"That's really sweet. But this is Lilly."

Oliver blinked at her.

"_Tomboy_ Lilly, Oliver," she explained slowly. "She doesn't want you to _know_ she likes you. It's embarrassing."

"I'm not embarrassing," said Oliver, affronted.

_You can be,_ thought Miley. _But then so can Lilly. _

"What I mean is that she'd be embarrassed if she knew you knew she liked you."

"That's stupid too," said Oliver, who was a lot less embarrassed about his feelings for Lilly now that he knew they were reciprocated. "I'll just tell her that I-"

"It's not that easy," interrupted Miley. "I think that's the real reason she didn't tell you about you being able to marry her. She doesn't want to admit that she likes you even to herself, because she wouldn't know how to deal with it. You're not like the other guys she's liked, Oliver. You're her best friend, and she doesn't want to mess that up. And marriage is for your whole lives."

Oliver just stared at her.

"And she's in a lot of pain right now," continued Miley. "You can't embarrass her on top of that. If you say you want to marry her she'll freak out because she'll know I told you about this, and that you know she likes you, and that she's eventually going to have to _admit_ that she likes you, and she won't think you'll like her back, and if you say you do she'll think you're just doing it to be nice and that you really don't, and then she'll have to live with that for the rest of her life, and she won't sign the marriage papers, and she'll get sad and depressed and-"

"Miley!" Oliver interrupted. "Stop." He held a hand to his head. _"Please."_

She stopped.

He blinked, trying to take all of that in.

"Girls are so confusing."

"Not as confusing as boys," Miley shot back. "But you're right; you have to convince her fast."

Oliver sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Maybe- maybe I can."

"What are you going to do, Oliver? Force her to marry you?"

Oliver blinked at her.

"Maybe that's it."

Miley knocked a glass over.

"What? O-li-ver! I was kidding. You cannot force Lilly to marry you!"

Oliver gave her an of-course-I-wouldn't look.

"Geez, Miley. I'm not going to _force_ her… I'm just going to trick her."

Miley's eyes widened as she picked up the glass.

"How?"

Oliver shook his head.

"I'm not sure yet. But there's got to be a way."

They sat back for a minute, trying to think around all of their sadness.

Oliver jumped up.

"I'm going to try. I'm going to ask her. But if she says no… Miley, she _can't_ go live with her aunt," he said severely. "Listen, do you know where the marriage papers are?" he asked.

She nodded, and pointed to the countertop behind her, to where Mr. Tawley had laid the marriage license. Oliver walked over and picked the papers up. He read through them for a minute, nodded, and signed something. Miley was amazed at how quickly and surely he did it.

Without a word to Miley, Oliver walked over to the closet where Mrs. Truscott kept her art supplies and began tossing things out. Finally he came out holding a stack of computer paper and what looked like wax paper. He smiled sadly. And then he grabbed a pen from the counter and walked upstairs, leaving Miley to clean up the art closet.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilly woke up sick. She wanted to be dead.

_No,_ she realized, _not dead. Just c__loser to Mom and Dad and Tom._

But she wanted to hide as well. She wanted to get away from everyone in this house; from everyone who didn't belong here, even Oliver and Miley, who she could hear talking downstairs. She got up and went into her parents' room, swiping angrily at the tears coursing down her cheeks.

This time she hid in her parents' closet. Nobody wouldn't look for her here. It was a large walk-in closet, and she and Tom had hidden here hundreds of times as children during games of hide-and-seek, but she remembered that Oliver had never been with them when they hid here.

She sat down on her mother's side of the closet and pushed herself back so that her face and most of her body were covered by her mother's clothes. They smelled just like her mother… Lilly sucked in a breath and tried to stop the tears as she buried her face in Mrs. Truscott's favorite dress.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oliver had searched the whole house by the time he remembered to check Lilly's parents' room. He'd checked her own closet twice.

He spotted her feet first; they were all he could see of her beneath her mother's dresses.

Lilly heard his footsteps and shivered.

Inexplicably fearful, Lilly shaded her eyes and moved further back into the corner. Oliver slowly pulled the dresses back, and Lilly looked up at him from behind her eyelashes, dark with tears long shed.

"Oh Lilly," whispered Oliver. "Lilly, I'm sorry."

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. He sat down and she moved over a little, giving him room to sit next to her. She still kept hold of her mother's dress.

Oliver swallowed. He wanted to hold her again, but he wasn't sure how to ask. He tried to think of a good way to bring up the subject of marriage without pushing her. But time was ticking by much faster than it should have.

"I didn't ask you, before," he murmured, and she looked at him. "I didn't ask you what- what's going to happen to you now... where you're going to go, now."

She shrugged, and it looked very much as though she didn't care.

"Probably to my Aunt's," she whispered.

Oliver felt his body tense.

"No."

"To Miley's, then," she said, to appease him.

"For sure?"

She swallowed. She smiled at him.

"For sure."

Oliver glared at her.

"Don't lie to me, Lilly," he whispered. "Please don't lie to me."

She bit her lip.

"They might take me away; the- The State."

"I won't let them take you away."

Lilly shook her head.

"There's nothing you can do."

He took her hands and squeezed them tight.

"There is, actually."

"What?" Lilly's voice was dangerous, and Oliver backtracked.

He smiled.

"You can draw me a picture."

Lilly laughed softly.

"A picture."

"A picture."

He handed her a stack of paper.

"Here."

Lilly shook her head as she took the paper from him, staring at it in confusion.

"Of what?"

"Anything you want."

"Why?"

He shrugged.

"Maybe it'll make you feel better to draw. You know, it gives you something to do," he tried lamely.

But Lilly gave him a soft smile.

"Okay."

And she drew a picture of the beach. She wasn't much of an artist, but Oliver could tell that much. She was standing there, with her whole family, surrounded by the sand and the waves. And, Oliver noticed, another boy and girl were in the picture with the Truscotts.

"You and Miley," whispered Lilly, as though she could read his mind.

He smiled. The fact that he was in the picture made him feel a little better about what he was about to do.

"Can I keep it?" he asked her.

Lilly was not in the mood to care.

"Sure."

"Then can- can you sign it for me? You know, in case you're ever famous. I want to have your autograph."

Lilly almost smiled. She looked at him quizzically, but she signed it. Oliver smiled at the picture before moving it out of sight.

"So maybe there's something else I can do," he began cautiously.

There was pain in Lilly's eyes.

"There's nothing," she said to the floor.

Oliver took a deep breath.

"Maybe not. Maybe… maybe I could…uh… Lilly…" He was really, really nervous. He swallowed. "Lilly, would you, um, would you like to…"

He cleared his throat, and she finally looked at him, wondering what he was stammering for. Oliver got up, and he pulled her up with him.

"Lilly, would you marry me?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For a moment Lilly was dazed, and they both thought she might say yes. But the moment was short-lived.

"What?" asked Lilly, and her voice was more dangerous than Oliver had ever heard it.

She let go of his hands and stepped back.

"I asked if you would-"

"I _know_ what you asked," said Lilly fiercely. "And the answer is _no_. I don't want to marry you. I _won't._ Miley can't make me and neither can you. I don't care if you feel sorry for me. Do you hear me? I don't care! I hate Miley." Her voice began to shake. "And I hate you. Now get out."

"Lilly," he began softly.

But she didn't want to hear it. She picked up the stack of papers he'd left on the floor and threw it at him. Then she pushed him out of the closet and shut the door before he could retaliate.

She waited for him to open the door, but he didn't. Instead, she could hear the sound of his footsteps leaving her parents' bedroom.

When she was sure she was alone, she sat down on the floor and cried.


	4. You Will

**Chapter Four: You Will**

* * *

Stricken temporarily dumb, Oliver only stared as Lilly slammed the closet door in his face. He raised a hand to knock at the door again, but a glance at her parents' alarm clock made him think better of it. 

He reached down and picked up the papers Lilly had thrown at him and, with a final glance at the closet doors, Oliver turned and ran down the stairs. He saw Miley at the bottom and grabbed her hand as soon as he reached her.

"Come on, Miles," he said. "We've got work to do."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilly was still in tears when four o'clock rolled around, but she put on a brave face. Chin held high, she told Mr. Tawley that she would go to live with her aunt. Mr. Tawley gave her a rather confused look and tried to speak with her further, but Lilly didn't care if he was confused. She marched upstairs and returned to her mother's closet, where no one else thought to look for her.

After ten minutes of searching Mr. Tawley grew annoyed and gave up.

"Finicky little thing, isn't she?" he remarked to Mr. Stewart on his way out.

But Mr. Stewart didn't pay him much attention.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The phone call the judge received half an hour later was enough to give Mr. Tawley the impression that Lilly was in no condition to be making decisions, since she kept changing her mind. He relayed this opinion to the judge, who agreed.

"That's her final answer, then," said Judge Hartley, shaking his head. "I'm very sorry for her loss, but this situation doesn't allow us a lot of time. We'll go ahead and send for her aunt though, since you've already bought the plane ticket. It's always better to have family witness the proceedings."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mrs. Hamilton came to stay with Lilly after speaking with her aunt, who told the social worker that she was out of town but would come to see Lilly on Monday afternoon.

The next three days were abysmally upsetting for everyone, but Lilly most of all. Miley and Oliver came by every few hours. They tried numerous times to get her to talk to them, but she ignored them both in equal measure.

And so it was that they spoke to her social worker instead. And they found that Mrs. Hamilton was happy to provide them with a time and place to say goodbye to their best friend, whom she thought might be ready to speak to them after a few days. Monday was fine with Mrs. Hamilton.

Miley suggested that Lilly might like to go to her church, especially at a time like this. Mrs. Hamilton agreed that it might be helpful. She even called Mr. Tawley to arrange to have him meet them there to finalize things. Lilly, when she was consulted, flatly refused to discuss anything with anyone.

Lilly moved into Tom's bedroom and rarely left it except to use the bathroom. Mrs. Hamilton felt sorry enough for her that she brought Lilly's meals to her there, although after two days had gone by she insisted that Lilly come downstairs at least to eat.

Lilly obliged her once she got hungry enough, but she summarily ignored all of the older lady's attempts at conversation, and eventually Mrs. Hamilton let her be.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Monday morning dawned bright and sunny. Lilly thought it was horribly unfair that the world should look so cheerful on the day she went to live with a killer.

_It's your own fault,_ she reasoned sulkily. _Don't forget that you did this to yourself._

She didn't want to go to church; she didn't want to leave Tom's bedroom. But Oliver called and insisted that she go.

"It'll make you feel better, Lil. You know, to know you have God on your side."

_We__ll,_ thought Lilly. _It couldn't possibly make me feel worse._

"I can have God on my side right here."

But maybe Oliver was right.

She smirked wryly.

_He ought to be sometime,_ she thought, and then immediately felt bad for thinking it. _You might never see him again,_ she reminded herself harshly.

It was enough to make her cry.

She hung up with Oliver and got dressed.

When she came down the stairs, she steeled herself for the inevitable.

"Not today," she whispered resolutely to the mirror in the hall. "No matter what, you will not cry today." She nodded at her reflection as she said it. "Everyone's better off this way."

"What did you say, Lilly?" asked Mrs. Hamilton from the doorway.

"Nothing," said Lilly sadly, and she followed her out.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Miley and Oliver met Lilly at the skate park. It was the first time she'd laid eyes on them in more than three days, and she had to admit that she was happy to see them. But she felt bad for mistreating them. She stopped a few feet in front of them.

"Hi," she said uncertainly. "Um, listen, I'm sorry… you know, for, uh…"

She trailed off. She didn't know what else to say. She shoved her hands in her pockets and stared at the ground.

She didn't really expect her friends to forgive her for ignoring them, but she wasn't entirely surprised when they hugged her.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," said Miley kindly. She remembered the loss of her own mother all too well.

Lilly tried not to sniffle. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and blinked back her tears.

"Where's Mrs. Hamilton?" Oliver asked her, when Lilly had succeeded in disentangling herself from their arms.

Lilly shrugged.

"She said she'd meet us at the church. I guess she wanted us to have some time alone before she hands me off to my aunt."

She looked down and kicked at a pebble. She missed the glance Miley and Oliver shared over her head.

"Yeah," said Miley nervously, "I guess."

They stood there for several minutes, unmoving, none of them really knowing what to say. Finally Lilly sighed.

"I guess we'd better go. I kind of want to be there for a little while before Mrs. Hamilton shows up with… her."

Oliver was staring anxiously out across the park. He stuck his hand in his shirt pocket and fiddled with something. He jumped when Miley swatted his arm. He looked at his watch.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, we'd better."

They walked in silence to the church.

Lilly took a deep breath when they reached the front door.

"God," she whispered, "help me."

"He will," said Miley quietly.

Lilly was startled. She hadn't even realized that she'd spoken.

"He will," Lilly mouthed, trying to bury the words in her soul. "He will."

"He will, repeated Oliver.

He smiled at her. It was a sad sort of smile, but Lilly was glad to have it all the same. She tried to freeze the image in her mind.

She gave him a watery smile in return.

"Come on," said Oliver.

He held out his hand to her, and Lilly took it.

Miley opened the main door, and they walked inside together.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oliver led the girls to a pew, and they all sank down gratefully into it. No one else was in the sanctuary. They were all so quiet that the rest of the world seemed to fall away, and all Lilly could hear was the soft hum of a fan whirring above them.

When Lilly closed her eyes, she was sure she could feel Jesus beside them. She felt a strange sort of peace wrap itself around her, and she breathed it in.

She opened her eyes and concentrated on the large cross someone had painted into a stained glass window years before. What was left of the world seemed to disappear.

Lilly barely noticed when Miley got up to get a drink of water. When she came back, she sat down behind them, and Lilly didn't think to wonder why.

They sat in the sanctuary for a long time, and eventually Lilly began to relax. She closed her eyes and prayed every prayer she knew. Then she added some of her own.

Lilly lost all track of time. She was sure that they had been there for hours. But when she heard the sanctuary doors swing open, her heart caught in her chest, and all she could think about was that they hadn't had enough time.

She could feel the blood draining from her face.

She felt Oliver squeeze her hand, and was amazed to realize that he hadn't let go of it since they'd come in. She turned back to stare at him, and he gave her a small, nervous smile. It struck her that it was no longer a sad smile. She wondered what _he_ had to be nervous about.

He looked away, toward their visitor, and Lilly was reminded that they were no longer alone.

Feeling sick, she turned around to see who had joined them.

It was the pastor of the church. Lilly wondered who had told him she was here. She noticed that he was carrying another book beneath his Bible, and she leaned over Oliver to see what it was. She couldn't tell. What she _could_ tell was that Oliver was doing an incredible job of avoiding her eyes.

Pastor Lawson smiled at her as he continued walking to the front of the room, and Lilly gave him a rather puzzled smile in return. Obviously he had come to talk to her… so why wasn't he talking to her?

She didn't have much time to dwell on that though. In behind the pastor walked two more men, who Lilly recognized as the judge who had come to her house and the psychiatrist who had come to evaluate her to prove to her aunt that she was sane.

She furrowed her brow in confusion. She opened her mouth to share her bewilderment with her best friends, but now they were both avoiding her eyes… and they did not look at all surprised to see the men who had come in.

A strange sort of fear began to build in her belly.

What was going on?

She started to stand up, but she was pulled right back down. She'd forgotten that Oliver was still holding her hand. She looked at him.

"Oliver?" she whispered, confused.

He was starting to sweat.

Lilly turned backward.

"Miley…"

"Be quiet," whispered Miley. She sounded a bit panicked.

Lilly was affronted.

"Miley, what the-"

But she stopped talking as the doors opened again and more people walked in. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Oliver.

In came a man carrying a briefcase... followed by Mrs. Hamilton, Mr. Tawley, Mr. Stewart, Oliver's parents, and- Lilly swallowed- her aunt. She followed them with her eyes as they walked up to a pew at the front and joined the judge and the psychiatrist.

"Oliver," she said numbly, "your parents are here… and your dad, Miley…"

Neither of her friends answered her, though their parents smiled at her as they sat down. Lilly couldn't make herself smile back.

"What's that psychiatrist doing here? And who's that guy with the briefcase?" she demanded.

Lilly kept trying to stand up, but Oliver kept tugging her down. She was getting frantic as well as frustrated, and she began to struggle with him.

"Lilly, calm down!" hissed Miley.

"Oliver, let go of me," said Lilly loudly, ignoring her.

Oliver still hadn't said anything, and he still wasn't looking at her. His hand was getting clammy, but it clasped hers so tightly that Lilly's fingers were turning purple. The judge looked at them oddly, and Lilly's aunt fixed her with a cold stare. She shrunk down beside Oliver, her eyes wild.

"What is going on here?" she whispered, still trying to wrench her hand from Oliver's death grip.

"Lilly," said Oliver desperately, "_shut up._"

Lilly stopped panicking long enough to glare at him.

He turned around and glared right back, shocking her into silence. What did he have to be upset about?

"Oliver?" called Pastor Lawson. "Lilly? Are you ready?"

Oliver turned white.

"Ready for what?" asked Lilly, really confused now.

She looked at her aunt. Was Oliver coming with them? But her aunt was still glaring at her. She didn't look ready to do Lilly any favors... so why, exactly, was she here?

"Um, just give us a minute," said Oliver to the pastor.

Miley glared at him.

"Um, please," added Oliver. "Sir."

He swallowed and deliberately looked away from Lilly, at her aunt. He laughed. It was the sort of laugh meant to convince someone of something which ought to have been obvious.

"She's just being a little dramatic right now."

Lilly jumped up.

"What? I am not being dramatic, Oliver Oken!"

She realized her mistake as her aunt took a couple of steps back. She sat back down and tried not to scream.

"Will one of you please tell me what is going on here?" she whispered harshly to Miley and Oliver.

Oliver looked to Miley for help, but she shook her head.

"You better tell her now," she mumbled under her breath.

Oliver looked as if he'd rather not.

Lilly turned to stare at him.

"Tell me what?" she demanded in a whisper.

Oliver sucked in his breath.

He twined their fingers and looked straight into her eyes.

"We're getting married, Lil." He squeezed her hand. "You and me." Her mouth dropped. "Right now."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He gave her a moment to process this.

But Lilly required much more than a moment. She swayed on her feet, and Oliver barely kept her from falling.

"What?" she whispered finally. "What did you say?"

Oliver looked very, very guilty. But he set his jaw.

"I said we're getting married. Now."

Lilly was dazed.

"How-" she began, but she couldn't finish her sentence.

She suddenly thought of something.

"Don't I have to agree to this? Don't I have to sign something? I'm not signing any-"

Oliver interrupted her to explain how he had copied her signature onto the marriage license using carbon paper.

Lilly only stared at him.

"I'm sorry, Lil," he whispered, begging her to understand. "I didn't want to do this to you. But you wouldn't talk to anybody. I couldn't let you go live with your aunt." His eyes grew fierce. "I _couldn't._ Just try to understand, Lilly. I just-"

But Lilly was not up to understanding. She was still several sentences behind him. _Carbon paper…__ the__ picture… _His words finally sunk in, and she was suddenly able to speak.

"That's illegal," she cried, appalled. "You can't do that!"

This garnered her several more odd looks from their audience, many of whom were becoming quite interested in their argument. Oliver looked at her pityingly.

"It's already been done."

For a moment Lilly stared at him. She looked around the room, at all of the people looking curiously at them… no, at _her_… as though she were crazy. She looked from Oliver to Miley and back again.

"You set me up," she whispered, her voice thick with the wounded grief of the horribly betrayed.

Oliver's guilt was tangible.

"I know. I know, and I'm sorry."

He looked deep into her eyes, remembering what Miley had said about Lilly's being afraid of burdening him; about her being afraid of him.

"But Lilly, I _want_ to marry you. I didn't think it would be this soon, but it'll be okay. It will. I promise. I want to, Lilly."

Her fingers shook, and her voice was like ice.

"Well I don't want to marry you."

_At least not right now. Not like this._

Oliver's eyes closed.

"You don't have a choice, Lil."

She lunged at him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They don't look very happy," noted Mr. Tawley as Lilly began trying to hit Oliver in earnest.

Miley and Oliver were able to restrain her by holding her arms, but she was still flailing around and yelling. She was so upset that no one could understand what she was saying.

Mr. Stewart and Mr. and Mrs. Oken began to walk toward them, but the psychiatrist stopped them.

"Dr. Evans?" asked Pastor Lawson of the psychiatrist.

Dr. Evans regarded Lilly and Oliver with interest.

"I wonder-"

Lilly's aunt glared at him.

"Never mind what you wonder; I thought you told me she was sane," she said accusingly. "That girl is no saner now than she was the last time I saw her."

"And I thought you told me that they wanted to get married," said Pastor Lawson to Mr. Tawley.

"Perhaps she's having second thoughts," suggested the psychiatrist reasonably.

Judge Hartley was evidently not impressed.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but in a case like this, she doesn't get to have second thoughts. She doesn't have time."

He strode purposefully toward the three teenagers.

"Young lady!" he addressed Lilly, so ferociously that he broke through her tirade.

She stopped trying to pummel Oliver long enough to glare at the judge.

"What is the meaning of your outburst?"

Her glare turned to an expression of self-pity. He was against her, too.

"This is crazy," she wailed. "I didn't sign anything. I'm supposed to go with my aunt."

Judge Hartley did not take well to whining adolescents.

"Bill!" he called out, over her aunt's deafening proclamation that Lilly was not going anywhere with her.

The man with the briefcase came toward him.

"May I see the marriage license, please?"

It was not a request.

Bill opened the briefcase and handed him the license. Lilly stared at it in awe. There was her signature, right next to Oliver's. He hadn't been kidding. She shivered. She turned to look at him, but he was working too hard on trying to look innocent to notice.

The judge pointed to her name.

"Is this your signature?" he asked.

Lilly was ready to cry. He wouldn't believe anything she said. Everyone in the room already thought she was crazy, with the possible exception of her two best friends. And this was their fault.

"Miss Truscott, I asked you a question."

Lilly blinked up at him.

"I told you, she's crazy. Now do you believe me?" called her aunt. "You ought to lock her up in a hospital."

She shook her head. She was no longer trying to keep Lilly safe; she actually believed that her niece had lost it. She couldn't blame her, after what Lilly had gone through, but she couldn't stay here either.

"I'm not going to be a witness to this," she said brokenly. "I'm sorry."

And she left.

Lilly watched her leave, and with her, Lilly's last chance to keep Oliver from ruining his life. And herself from making him hate her for it. She felt sick again.

"Miss Truscott?"

Judge Hartley's voice was considerably kinder now that Lilly had calmed down, and she turned unfocused eyes to look at him.

"I'm sorry, but if you cannot calm down I _will_ be forced to send you to a hospital... I understand that you've been through a lot, but you have changed your mind a number of times already, and you need to... Miss Truscott, are you listening to me?"

_A hospital…_

Lilly forced herself to nod.

"Is this your signature?" the judge asked quietly.

Lilly nodded.

It was.

"Then you signed this paper, is that correct?"

Lilly blinked.

_No._

She nodded again.

The judge smiled in relief.

"Good. Are you still willing to marry your friend Oliver, then?"

Lilly tried to focus on Oliver. It was hard to do.

His eyes were pleading with her. Tears swelled in her eyes at the look on his face, and she felt him squeeze her fingers. Her heart skipped a beat.

Finally she looked at the judge again, willing him to understand what she was trying to convey with her eyes.

_No, no, no, no! One day he's going to wake up and he's going to hate me. He's going to regret it. Don't you get it? _her mind screamed. _I__'m going to lose my best friend. I__ am going to ruin his life!_

She felt Oliver's fingers on her wrist. He was pulling her to him; trying to keep her with him as long as he could in case she said no.

Judge Hartley tapped his watch.

Lilly closed her eyes.

"Yes," she whispered.


	5. Til Death Do Us Part

_Author's Note: _I want to say thank you so much to all those who have written such kind reviews! I really hope you continue to enjoy the story. I'm awfully sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter up. I don't really have an excuse, since I said I would try to post it soon, but a couple of things came up recently which made it difficult for me to find time to write. Those same things still exist, and one of them is very positive but requires a lot of my time, so I still won't be able to write as frequently, but I'm still going to try to post a chapter every couple of weeks. I have four more outlined, and I certainly intend to finish and post them. If you choose to keep reading, thanks for your loyalty. Again, thank you to those of you who've been kind enough to let me know that you liked the story.

**

* * *

Chapter 5: ****'Til**** Death Do Us Part**

"Then will you please proceed to the altar?" asked Judge Hartley.

Lilly could tell that they were wearing on his last nerve.

Somewhat against her better judgment, she turned to look at her friend… her _fiancé_, she realized, as the room spun around her.

Oliver held out his hand. For a moment, Lilly only stared at it.

_This is your last chance, __Lilly! _she told herself.

_If you marry him now…_

She was suddenly a little dizzy.

_Run!__ Run, Lilly!_ her mind screamed at her.

But her feet wouldn't move. She glanced at all of the people sitting in that front pew. She'd never make it past them all anyway; someone would be bound to catch her.

There was nothing for it.

She took Oliver's hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Desperation clogged Lilly's veins as she let Oliver lead her out of the pew as though they were in a dream. They were halfway up the aisle before she found the courage to speak.

"I can't do this to you," Lilly whispered brokenly, finally so desperate that she was willing to break down in front of him.

"Lilly, you're not doing anything to me," he whispered back encouragingly. "I want to do this, okay?" He smiled at her. "I want to marry you."

His words struck her in the heart. Lilly felt silent tears begin to roll down her cheeks, and she trembled.

"You do?" she whispered.

"Yeah," whispered Oliver. He squeezed her fingers, and she could tell that he was trying to calm her down... but he also seemed to mean it, and that in itself made her dizzy.

"I mean, think about it, Lil," he continued. "Ten years from now this would have happened anyway, right?"

Lilly was too shaken up to think ten years into the future. She was having enough trouble trying to get through the next minute. But it was nice- if a bit shocking- to know that he'd considered the possibility.

She suddenly thought of something and panicked.

"We can't get married, Oliver!" she whispered hysterically. "They're going to make you kiss me!"

That was a dream she'd been fighting for a while. She'd told herself over and over again that she didn't feel anything for Oliver; that she wasn't secretly longing for him to kiss her. But she couldn't lie to herself anymore, and if Oliver kissed her, he would know how she felt.

Oliver swallowed.

"It's okay. I already asked. They won't."

His words echoed inside her head. Lilly hadn't expected them to hurt so much. But she was stung.

_"They won__'__t.__"_

_Well. _

Lilly tried not to be hurt. What did she care, anyway?

"Good," she whispered back, feigning humor. "'Cause I would die if we had to kiss in front of all these people."

That, at least, was true. If she was going to make a fool of herself in front of Oliver, she'd rather not have an audience.

Oliver smiled.

"Does that mean you're okay with this? The rest of it, I mean." His voice wobbled. "You know, marry- marrying me?"

Lilly's face turned white. They were standing in front of the pastor. She turned back and saw the judge. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Oliver. She swallowed.

"Sure."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The ceremony, as it were, went by in a blur.

When they reached the altar Lilly wrenched her hand away from Oliver, needing at least a few seconds to process what was happening. Unfortunately, the atmosphere wasn't exactly conducive to processing information. The whole thing was surreal, and Lilly was quite lost.

She was vaguely aware of the fact that Miley, now in the front row with the rest of the spectators, was crying, and that Pastor Lawson was saying something that she probably ought to be paying attention to. But she couldn't. She stared all the while at Oliver, whose cheeks were growing a rather guilty shade of red, silently begging him to explain what was going on.

He stared right back at her, but for the life of her she couldn't fathom what he must have been thinking. Apparently the pastor's words were not lost on Oliver, however, because out of nowhere he suddenly spoke.

"I do."

Lilly was so surprised that she jumped. Oliver gave her a small smile. Lilly gazed at him from heavy-lidded eyes, her mind a jumble of confusion. A voice came to her out of her haze, and she looked around at Pastor Lawson.

"Lilly?"

"Huh?"

He smiled at her.

"Do you take Oliver Oscar Oken to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Lilly swallowed. She seemed to be doing that a lot today.

"Lilly?" whispered Oliver.

She couldn't make herself look at him. She took a step back. He reached for her hands and then she was facing him again. She stared down at them in fascination, squeezing his fingers to keep her balance. She'd never felt so dizzy in her whole life.

"It's okay," said Oliver. "Lilly, it's going to be okay."

His voice was steady, but somehow Lilly could tell that he was nervous anyway. She finally tore her eyes away from their hands and followed the sound of his voice.

Her eyes reached his, and she blinked at him. His face really was incredibly red. She tilted her head to the side to get a better look at him. It was a rather endearing shade of red…

"Lilly?"

She wasn't sure who said it. But they were obviously expecting an answer.

"Yeah," she murmured, still looking at Oliver. "Yeah, okay."

"Lilly," came the pastor's voice, quite gently, "you need to say 'I do.'"

"Right," said Lilly, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry."

Of course she had to say "I do," that was what everyone said when they were married in the movies…

"I do."

She was surprised to hear herself speak the words anyway.

Oliver's relief was tangible. He actually laughed, and his hold on her hands relaxed. His laughter broke the spell over Lilly, and she scowled at him.

She ignored him and turned to face the pastor. Another long moment passed, during which Pastor Lawson said several things which Lilly couldn't comprehend, and then he said the six words she should have realized were coming:

"Oliver, you may kiss your bride."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilly opened her mouth to tell the pastor that they wouldn't bother when she felt Oliver tugging at her hands. She looked up and glared at him. Now was not the time to try to apologize. Couldn't he tell that she was trying to get them out of a very embarrassing situation?

Embarrassing for her, anyway… she suddenly wondered if Oliver was any good at kissing. Her face turned slightly pink at the thought.

"I'd love to," said Oliver, and Lilly's mouth dropped open.

He smiled cheekily at her, and a cold fury swept over Lilly. He had lied to her. _Again_. She supposed it shouldn't come as such a shock, on top of everything else, but really, _again?_

How _dare_ he put her through this? How dare he stand here and make fun of her? Couldn't he tell that she was uncomfortable? Didn't he remember what she'd said to him less than twenty minutes ago? _He_ had done this to her, and now he was going to, what? _Claim_ her? Here? In front of all these people? Had he lost his mind?

_Yes,_ thought Lilly. He certainly had.

But that had become obvious to her an hour ago.

She glared at him. He wanted to kiss her, did he? Well Oliver Oken had another thing coming.

She tried to cross her arms over her chest, but Oliver still held her hands. She tugged at them but couldn't free them. He had a rather determined look in his eyes, and Lilly was suddenly quite nervous. He could not be serious. He absolutely couldn't be.

But he was.

Every insecurity Lilly had ever known flooded her all at once, compounded by the fact that she no longer had any familial support system to run home to if he laughed at her. She was dismayed to realize that Oliver might very well learn of her secret crush on him in the next five seconds. What on earth were they going to do then?

She meant to struggle with him; she really did. But he continued to stare at her as his lips found hers, and Lilly saw that they were full of promise. Perhaps he didn't love her in the way a husband loves a wife; not yet. But his eyes told her that he certainly meant to.

Against her will, she stopped struggling and closed her eyes.

And when Oliver's lips touched her own, she swayed on her feet.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been such a quick kiss that afterward Lilly wondered if she had imagined it. There were no cat calls or wolf whistles, and Oliver turned away from her so quickly that Lilly would have fallen if she hadn't still been holding his hands.

She stared at the crowd in front of them as Oliver looked to Pastor Lawson, who smiled out at the front pew.

"May I present to you the new Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Oken."

Lilly, still a bit mystified, turned to Oliver in mild indignation.

"You changed my name?" she demanded.

Oliver shrugged his shoulders as he tugged her down the aisle, so relieved that he had actually pulled it off, that Lilly wasn't going to live with her aunt (and, if he was especially honest, because he was secretly thrilled to have kissed Lilly, whom he had wanted to kiss for quite some time) that he had to catch his breath.

"Sorry," he murmured, looking genuinely confused as to why she might care. "I didn't think you would mind."

_Unbelievable,_ thought Lilly.

It wasn't that she minded, really. She'd always sort of taken for granted the idea that she'd take her husband's name once she got married. It had always seemed kind of nice. But, she thought, glaring at Oliver, she supposed she'd also thought he might have had the common decency to ask her, at least as a formality.

She snatched one of her hands back in silent protest, but Oliver was too focused on trying to breathe properly to notice.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well," said Oliver nervously, just to break the silence.

He and Lilly stood in the entrance to a hotel room as a door was closed behind them.

He supposed he might have thought of this. But he and Miley had been so busy trying to make their whole plan go off without a hitch that he hadn't really thought about what might happen after he had married Lilly.

He certainly hadn't thought that the judge would send Oliver and Lilly on a honeymoon. The two of them stood staring at the queen sized bed in front of them. They may not have been in a honeymoon suite, and they may not have even left Malibu, but the lack of subtlety that had gone into dropping the two friends off in a one-bed hotel room after the ceremony was rather appalling.

Lilly glared at Oliver, at least as embarrassed as he was.

"So what?" she demanded, her humiliation making her furious, particularly now that they were away from their audience and she was able to think clearly. "You just thought you could- you could just- and I would just-"

Lilly stared from Oliver to the bed and shook her head, glaring. Her hands were flailing all over the place and her face had turned an interesting shade of pink, and Oliver tried very hard not to finish her sentence in his head. He looked down at the floor, embarrassed.

"Um, we don't have to… uh, do that tonight Lil."

Lilly was secretly relieved. She would have liked to have had more than two hours' warning. And she was glad that he sounded rather unsure. But she was really working herself up into a temper.

She had about had it with Oliver and his surprises today. They had hardly ever discussed kissing with each other; and they had certainly never discussed kissing each other. The thought of going beyond kissing, especially with Oliver, was unnerving to say the least. She could not believe he had the audacity to get them a hotel room. She deliberately ignored the fact that he seemed to be as surprised as she was.

And so she really let him have it, calling him every horrible thing she could think of, for a good five minutes.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Oken!" she finally screamed. "I hope you don't think I want to do anything with you."

Oliver was sure he deserved this, but her words stung, and at that he decided that he'd had enough. He wondered if she didn't know that he liked her. His anger overtook him, and he began to fight back.

"Yeah?" he finally yelled at her. "You think I planned on dragging you out here and- and- taking off my clothes with you!?!"

_Smooth, Oken. _

He tried not to wince. Lilly smirked.

_Well,_ he reasoned, he might have been worked up, but that didn't mean he knew how to talk about this stuff with her.

She sneered at him.

"You'd be too embarrassed."

_Ouch_. Of course he would, but geez. She didn't have to point that out. Besides, what made her so confident all of a sudden?

"Like you wouldn't be!" he shot back.

"I wouldn't!" she yelled. She would be, but that was beside the point. She looked daggers at him. "I look good. Unlike some people."

Oliver didn't disagree, but he wondered where she'd found the nerve to say it. He knew she was relatively insecure about her body. And what did she know about his? They were both getting way out of control. He sneered at her.

"Yeah? Prove it!"

Lilly just wanted him to leave. She smirked at him and, with a courage she didn't really have, began taking off her shirt. She really didn't look all that suggestive, since she didn't actually know what she was doing, but watching her do it was enough to make Oliver run. He was _not_ ready to sleep with her… not like that. Not tonight.

"I don't have anything to be embarrassed about," she whispered.

Oliver smirked at her. He wasn't running yet.

"I'll bet you do," he said softly.

_Ouch,_ thought Oliver and Lilly together.

Tears stung Lilly's eyes, and Oliver immediately felt bad. But not for long. Lilly started yelling at him again, and they argued with each other until Oliver had really had it. Lilly's overconfidence was starting to wear on him, and he thought he'd show her up.

Just then, Lilly gave him the ammunition he needed.

"I look awesome!" yelled Lilly angrily, trying to convince herself as much as Oliver. "I look so awesome you wouldn't believe it. I bet you anything I could take off all my clothes in front of you and I wouldn't care, and you'd be too chicken to look!"

"Fine!" Oliver yelled back. "I'm going to go into the other room for five minutes. You think you know what you're doing? You think I really believe you're okay with being _naked_ in the same room with me?"

Lilly swallowed, but her furious gaze didn't waver. Oliver smirked at her.

"If you really look so awesome, go ahead. Take off all your clothes before I get back! We'll see who's chicken."

"Fine! I will!"

Oliver laughed cruelly.

"You wouldn't dare. "

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. No way you have the guts to do it."

She smirked at him.

"Says you."

"Are you telling me that when I walk back in here, you're just going to be naked?" he asked incredulously. "Are you serious?"

She gave him an imperious sneer.

"Fine." He crossed his arms. "I dare you."

"Fine!"

He turned around before he walked out the door.

"But I bet you're chicken."

Lilly stuck her tongue out at him as he slammed the door shut behind him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oliver sat down in the arm chair in the next room. He was shaking. She could not be serious. But he'd pushed her really far today…

Oliver swallowed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lilly thought she'd been holding up pretty well, all things considered. But as she stared at the door Oliver had just shut behind him, she swallowed hard.

Who was she kidding?

She and Oliver both knew there was no way on earth she'd ever do that.

She wanted to call him back into the room and tell him she was chicken; she wanted to admit that she'd only said what she had because she was sad and scared and he'd called her on her insecurities; because he was one of the only two people in the world that she trusted anymore, and he'd lied to her and she'd lost it.

But Lilly Truscott was no coward. She certainly didn't back down from dares, and that went double when they were given by Oliver Oken, who wouldn't know a good dare if it bit him.

She swallowed again.

_I can do it,_ she told herself.

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Oliver was three minutes past the five-minute mark by the time he found the courage to open the door.

He was secretly very intrigued; if Lilly had actually found the guts to do it he knew he'd never get over it. He'd dreamed about seeing her with her clothes off for a while, but if she'd really done it…

Oliver swallowed again.

He opened the door.

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… And decided that he really, really hated himself.

She stood before him in the middle of the room, looking absolutely terrified.

Lilly's bravado failed her, and the fear in her eyes was laid bare for Oliver to see.

Her hands were twisted inside her shirt; in her panic she hadn't been even been able to get that off. She'd started to, just to show him, because she knew she'd never live it down either way. But once she'd gotten one arm out of her shirt she knew she'd never get anything else off, and she'd begun to cry.

"Aw, Lil," Oliver whispered, compassion in his voice when he saw how panicked she was. "It's okay."

Oliver helped her untangle her arms from the shirt and pulled them out of the sleeves, trying to find the front of her shirt. He tugged it off of her head when he realized he was choking her with it.

Lilly coughed and crossed her arms over her chest, embarrassed. She was still shaking, and silent tears rolled down her blushing cheeks. Oliver had no idea what to do.

He couldn't get the shirt back over her head; she was shaking too badly.

He finally gave up and set her shirt on the end table.

He took off his collared overshirt and wrapped it around Lilly's shaking body, buttoning her into it. He had to pry her arms away from her chest in order to do it, and he tried very hard not to look at anything he wasn't supposed to.

Although, he reasoned, they were married now… maybe it was okay for him to look. He glanced at Lilly, who had her eyes shut.

He had never, ever, no matter what he'd done to her, seen her look as helpless and vulnerable and embarrassed as she did right now.

No, this was not the time. There was a moment in which he had a selfish, fleeting thought that he wanted it to be, but he did his best to push that thought out of his mind. He closed his eyes, too. He took a deep breath and let it out, trying to relax for both their sakes.

"Lilly…" he tried.

But he realized that he didn't know how to make this okay. There was so much that was wrong already, and he had done this to her. He'd been trying to help, and hopefully in the long run he'd be able to look back on this and see that he _had_ helped.

But this horribly embarrassing moment he was putting Lilly through was half his fault. She was definitely full of it, but he'd known that, and if he'd had an once of compassion he might have let some of her comments slide.

She'd had to be going through the worst time of her life, and then he'd forced her to marry him against her will. She had verbally attacked him and tried to put him in his place just to get herself back in some kind of control, and he had to go and make her call her own bluff.

It was a wonder she hadn't had a nervous breakdown yet. It was a wonder she didn't hate him. He ran a hand through his hair, upset. He must be the worst best friend in the world. He sighed.

"C'mere, Lil," he whispered.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him, lost and clearly humiliated, begging him with her eyes to forgive her. Oliver wrinkled his forehead in thought. He should be the one asking her forgiveness. Not that he would have changed anything he'd done, but he still felt awful about what it was doing to Lilly now.

He pulled Lilly to him and held her as tightly as he could. She shook in his arms.

"Deep breaths, Lil, deep breaths."

She tried to copy his breathing, but she was too nervous to calm down.

She just held onto him tightly, as tightly as he was holding her, and buried her face in the crook of his neck until, out of sheer exhaustion, she began to slip. Oliver slowly disentangled them and took her hand, leading her to the bed.

She stopped when she saw where he was taking her, clutching at his fingers as she tried to pull him back. She wanted him with her, but she was literally frightened of what he might expect from her if they got to the bed.

Oliver, of course, was way past thinking either of them was ready to do anything tonight.

Although he had _really_ wanted to…

He shook his head.

"Lilly… come on, let me help you. I'm not gonna try anything."

She whimpered and looked down, her face turning a much splotchier shade of red. He ran his fingers through her hair and hugged her.

"It's okay. We're not gonna do anything. I'm sorry I was such a jerk."

Lilly pulled the arms of his shirt more tightly around her and hiccupped. Finally, she nodded.

Oliver set her shirt on the floor and walked with her across the room. He gently lay her down on the bed.

She closed her eyes and squeezed his hand. He sighed and ran his free hand though his hair, completely unsure of what to do. How had he done this to her?

"I'm sorry, Lil," he whispered again.

He leaned down and kissed her hair.

"And just for the record, you're beautiful."

He smiled at her as she hiccupped again.

"Don't even let anyone tell you different. Especially me."

He rubbed his thumb across her palm before releasing her hand.

"I'll just go in the other room, okay? I'll see you in the morning."

He began to walk to ward the door, wondering how they were ever going to look each other in the eyes in the morning… or any morning thereafter, really.

Wow, he'd made a mess of this. He shook his head, his hand on the doorknob, when he heard Lilly's voice.

"Ollie," she whispered, as broken as she had been when they'd sat together in her parent's closet.

He turned back around.

Lilly's eyes were closed, but she was pleading with him.

"Don't go, please. I'm sorry. You don't- you don't have to go."

Oliver just looked at her, his face turning red.

"Um, yeah, okay," he agreed.

And he turned off the light and cautiously climbed onto the bed, careful to stay as far to the opposite side as he could.

Lilly opened her eyes and smiled sheepishly at him. She felt like a small child at sleepaway camp; scared to be alone at night. Oliver couldn't really tell in the dark, but he thought she was probably still blushing.

"I really am sorry," he mumbled.

"I know," she whispered. "Me, too."

They both rolled onto their backs, staring at the ceiling.

Finally Lilly found the courage she'd been lacking.

"Ollie?" she whispered.

She felt him move on the bed.

"Yeah?"

Lilly bit her lip.

"Um…"

_Hold me,_ she wanted to say. _Please. I need you. _But she couldn't.

And so she sucked in her breath, rolled over until she hit his body, and buried her face in his chest.

"Oomph!"

For a moment, Oliver was floored. But then he realized what she was doing. He smiled and tugged her closer.

They fell asleep wrapped in each others' arms.


End file.
